ESPN Special - Steroids in Baseball
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
WHO KNEW?
In a 16-page special report feature titled "Who Knew?" ESPN The Magazine reports on how steroids spread throughout baseball and how many of those closely involved with the game - executives, the players, the trainers, the media - watched it happen and looked the other way. The Magazine traces the arc of the steroids age in baseball from 1987-2005 through several principals: a trainer, a supplier, an FBI agent, a baseball executive, a writer, a doctor and four players.
The product of a six-month investigation, "Who Knew?" is told in four parts, each weaving together a series of scene-driven narratives: "Steroids Meet Baseball" (1987-1994), "The Tipping Point" (1994-1998), "Busting Out" (1998-2001) and "Crash and Burn" (2002-2005). The report reveals:
"Who Knew?" was written and reported by Shaun Assael, Peter Keating, Buster Olney Amy K. Nelson and Tom Farrey, who collectively interviewed more than 150 subjects and examined hundreds of pages of documents.
This special report appears in the Nov. 21, 2005 issue of ESPN The Magazine, available on newsstands and on ESPN.com this Wednesday, November 9
In a 16-page special report feature titled "Who Knew?" ESPN The Magazine reports on how steroids spread throughout baseball and how many of those closely involved with the game - executives, the players, the trainers, the media - watched it happen and looked the other way. The Magazine traces the arc of the steroids age in baseball from 1987-2005 through several principals: a trainer, a supplier, an FBI agent, a baseball executive, a writer, a doctor and four players.
The product of a six-month investigation, "Who Knew?" is told in four parts, each weaving together a series of scene-driven narratives: "Steroids Meet Baseball" (1987-1994), "The Tipping Point" (1994-1998), "Busting Out" (1998-2001) and "Crash and Burn" (2002-2005). The report reveals:
- MLB attempted to outlaw steroid use in 1991 and again in 1997, earlier than it has previously acknowledged addressing the issue.
- More than 20 Major League players were using anabolic steroids as early as 1991, according to a dealer who claims to have supplied them.
- In the mid-1990s, one bodybuilder turned spring training for a player on the Phillies into his personal chemistry experiment.
- In 1998, Wally Joyner asked Ken Caminiti to help him get steroids, and Caminiti supplied him with pills that Joyner ingested. He then regretted taking the pills and threw the rest away.
- Team doctors began trying to get information about the effects of supplements and steroids to players as early as 1997, but were repeatedly delayed by MLB and the Players Association, who felt more research was needed and didn't distribute such data until 2001.
- BALCO founder Victor Conte, in an exclusive analysis for The Magazine, has concluded that under MLB's current steroids policy, it is still remarkably easy for players to cheat.
"Who Knew?" was written and reported by Shaun Assael, Peter Keating, Buster Olney Amy K. Nelson and Tom Farrey, who collectively interviewed more than 150 subjects and examined hundreds of pages of documents.
This special report appears in the Nov. 21, 2005 issue of ESPN The Magazine, available on newsstands and on ESPN.com this Wednesday, November 9